An ad hominem is a rhetorical tactic that attacks the character, motives or background of the person making an argument rather than the argument itself. The Latin means argument directed at the person. A common version claims that a speaker's personal trait is repugnant, which goes off topic and leads the listener to assume the fact is wrong without any engagement with it. Poisoning the well is a related form that presents damaging information about someone to discredit everything they say. Not every ad hominem is a fallacy, though: arguing from an opponent's own commitments is a legitimate dialectical strategy. Ad hominem attacks were studied in ancient Greece and revived by John Locke in the 17th century.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.